Passes the Bechdel test
Love, Simon
2018. Directed by Greg Berlanti, written by Becky Albertalli and Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
15 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 178. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
A young coming-of-age tale about a teenage boy, Simon Spier, goes through a different kind of Romeo and Juliet story. Simon has a love connection with a boy, Blue, by email, but the only problem is that Simon has no idea who he's talking to. Simon must discover who that boy is--who Blue is. Along the way, he tries to find himself as well.
- Released
- 16 Mar 2018
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 72 / 100
- Awards
- 9 wins & 30 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Simon 330 lines, man
- Abby 93 lines, woman
- Nick 90 lines, man
- Martin 67 lines, man
- Leah 38 lines, woman
- Jack 32 lines, man
- Denise 28 lines
- Bram 27 lines, man
- Lyle 25 lines, man
- Alice 16 lines
Full cast, 69 people
- Nick Robinson as Simon
- Jennifer Garner as Emily
- Josh Duhamel as Jack
- Katherine Langford as Leah
- Alexandra Shipp as Abby
- Logan Miller as Martin
- Keiynan Lonsdale as Bram
- Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Nick
- Talitha Eliana Bateman as Nora
- Tony Hale as Mr. Worth
- Natasha Rothwell as Ms. Albright
- Miles Heizer as Cal
- Joey Pollari as Lyle
- Clark Moore as Ethan
- Drew Starkey as Garrett
- Mackenzie Lintz as Taylor
- Cassady McClincy-Zhang as Jackie
- Alex Sgambati as Terrible Liar Girl
- Jamila Thompson as Additional Posse Girl
- Emily Jordan as Creekwood Girl
- Patrick Donohue as Math Teacher
- Terayle Hill as Spencer
- Tyler Chase as Aaron
- Haroon Khan as Suraj
- Joshua Mikel as Ride Operator
- Nicholas Stargel as Fantasy Teen
- Nancy De Mayo as Nick's Mom
- Christian Ojore Mayfield as Nick's Dad
- Chantell D. Christopher as Abby's Mom
- Mandy Fason as Leah's Mom
- Philip Covin as Leah's Dad
- Campbell Godfrey as Little Man
- Robbie Rogers as The Coach
- Christopher L. Plunkett as Dancer
- Jessi Peralta as Dancer
- Carsen Rowe as Dancer
- John James as Dancer
- Ahsia Pettigrew as Dancer
- Erick Nathan as Dancer
- Ahmed Zakzouk as Dancer
- Erica Lee Rahola as Dancer
- Aaron Davidson as Dancer
- Jonathan Fritschi as Dancer
- Jaidi Ventura as Dancer
- Kyle 'Wolfy' Walker as Dancer
- Matthew Laraway as Dancer
- Delisha Williams as Dancer
- Ivan A. Gomez as Dancer
- Dylan Cheek as Dancer
- Danni Heverin as Dancer
- Erica Ray as Dancer
- Ashley Rogers as Dancer
- Aryes Cox as Dancer
- David Copeland Brown Jr. as Tyler (uncredited)
- Bryson Pitts as 10-Year-Old Simon Spier (uncredited)
- Nye Reynolds as 5-Year-Old Simon Spier (uncredited)
- Skye Mowbray as 6-Year-Old Nora Spier (uncredited)
- Samantha Bulka as Ethan's Posse (uncredited)
- Baz Ma as Ethan's Posse (uncredited)
- Natalia Tureta as Ethan's Posse (uncredited)
- Briana Estevez as Cheerleader (uncredited)
- Jönah-Blainé Bowling as Trendy Jock (uncredited)
- Sean O'Donnell as High School Student (uncredited)
- Collin McHugh as High School Student (uncredited)
- Abigail Houck as High School Student (uncredited)
- Jodi Houck as Parent (uncredited)
- Josh Royston as Parent (uncredited)
- Tyson Love as Football Parent (uncredited)
- Jordan Doww as High School Student (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 178
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 5 to 8 | 11 | 27 |
| 9 to 12 | 8 | 20 |
| 13 to 16 | 6 | 17 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 7 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 4 |
| 25 to 28 | 1 | 6 |
| 29 to 32 | 1 | 7 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 12 |
| 37 to 40 | 5 | 3 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 20 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 6 |
| 49 to 52 | 7 | 24 |
| 53 to 56 | 4 | 26 |
| 57 to 60 | 5 | 40 |
| 61 to 64 | 2 | 2 |
| 65 to 68 | 1 | 8 |
| 69 to 72 | 7 | 8 |
| 73 to 76 | 2 | 2 |
| 77 to 80 | 1 | 3 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 5 |
| 85 to 88 | 17 | 46 |
| 89 to 92 | 6 | 13 |
| 93 to 96 | 1 | 7 |
| 97 to 100 | 9 | 13 |
| 101 to 104 | 1 | 4 |
| 105 to 108 | 31 | 82 |
| 109 to 112 | 1 | 5 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 4 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 3 |
| 121 to 124 | 2 | 2 |
| 125 to 128 | 6 | 47 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 23 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 13 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 3 |
| 141 to 144 | 6 | 17 |
| 145 to 148 | 1 | 6 |
| 149 to 152 | 7 | 19 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 10 |
| 157 to 160 | 12 | 29 |
| 161 to 164 | 0 | 6 |
| 165 to 168 | 0 | 5 |
| 169 to 172 | 1 | 4 |
| 173 to 176 | 3 | 16 |
| 177 to 178 | 0 | 0 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
ABBY: Ten minutes later than the last time you asked me. TAYLOR: Um, I was pretty singularly focused on being Oliver but I could still tell that sucked. Jake and Samantha were practically dry humping the e… MS. ALBRIGHT: Point taken. Let's try and put aside our steamy personal lives when we're in character, shall we?
LEAH: Mhmm. We got soup dumplings. ABBY: I like your dress. LEAH: Oh, thanks--
ABBY: That was horrible. LEAH: Don't worry. People will have forgotten about it by the time we're back from Christmas break.
NORA: Don't you people have anything better to do? Go get candy cotton and make out with each other. ABBY: You heard the woman, move people!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 21 are women's.
166 lines from women, 634 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
15 women and 27 men in the cast. 5 women and 15 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 13 of 870.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 101 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 20% of the words (1,743), men 80% (6,910). Women have 21% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
7
Two men
70
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Greg Berlanti (man)
- Written by
- Isaac Aptaker (man), Elizabeth Berger (woman)
- From the novel by
- Becky Albertalli (woman)
- Produced by
- Marty Bowen (man), Wyck Godfrey (man), Isaac Klausner (man), Pouya Shahbazian (man)
- Shot by
- John Guleserian (man)
- Edited by
- Harry Jierjian (man)
- Music by
- Rob Simonsen (man)
- Production design by
- Aaron Osborne (man)
- Costumes by
- Eric Daman (man)
- Cast by
- Denise Chamian (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
10 women, 14 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 2 men, 12 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 9 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 5 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 3 men, 6 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Talitha Eliana Bateman 16, Katherine Langford 21, Alexandra Shipp 26, Jennifer Garner 45
Men
Nick Robinson 22, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. 22, Logan Miller 25, Keiynan Lonsdale 26, Josh Duhamel 45, Tony Hale 47
Exhibit H: the money
It made 3.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $17 million
- Box office
- $66.3 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 178 scenes and 870 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
